Linux Security – Firewall Management With IPTABLES

Terrence T. Cox —  April 8, 2013

We have talked about security in this space before, in more abstract terms. More specifically, we are going to review the basic setup and some simple access rules using the venerable and ever popular ‘iptables’ firewall available for every Linux distribution around.

Firewall Service Management
Depending on the distribution, you are able to manage your firewall service a number of ways. With the RPM based distributions (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora), you can start the firewall as follows:
sudo service iptables start
and you can set it to autostart thereafter by executing:
sudo chkconfig iptables on

With Debian based distributions (Debian, Ubuntu and its variants and Mint), you manage both the start and autostart using a script called ‘ufw’ as follows:
sudo ufw enable

This will both start the firewall with default chain rulesets in place as well as configure the firewall to autostart on system boot. The valid states for ‘ufw’ are [enable/disable/status], status will let you know whether the firewall is started and configured to start on boot.

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Cloud Storage for Your Linux Platform

Terrence T. Cox —  March 29, 2013


Most of us are storing some of our files (pictures, music, documents, etc) in the cloud in one way or another. What we are going to talk about today is some of the cloud storage providers that support Linux integration – some directly with an install-able client, some by implementing access through standard technologies. Finally, we will point out those who (at least at this point) do not seem to want the Linux crowd to soil their premises with our footprints.

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Ubuntu – Secure Remote Desktop Connectivity

Terrence T. Cox —  March 21, 2013

Accessing your desktop remotely is a convenience that we all appreciate. Many people set up VNC Server and an associated client in order to have their full ‘X’ capable desktop with them wherever they have a network connection. What some do not realize is that VNC as a protocol is extremely insecure and very susceptible to MitM snooping (Man in the Middle) since much of the text back and forth between client and server is transmitted as clear text. Today we are going to install and configure a simple VNC Server, access it with a VNC client and then add some security by using it over SSH.

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New Golden Age of Spaceflight

Tyra Robertson —  March 14, 2013

Richard Garriott thinks we are heading into a new golden age of human space flight. One of the first things he mentioned in his SXSW talk was that just over 500 people have left the planet in 50 years of space flight. While he’s happy to be one of those people he agrees that number is dismal. When you factor the costs involved of sending those 500 people to space, the number is especially bleak. Just look at the overview of the International Space Station (ISS) it cost tens of billions to develop and a couple billion to maintain each year. The Shuttle was a couple hundred million per seat and the Souyoz, while cheaper, is about $50 million per seat. These enormous costs are one of the barriers to advancing human space exploration.

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DIY Space

Tyra Robertson —  March 11, 2013

Space Exploration is a new theme to South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive. One of the courses that caught my attention was Crowd-Sourcing the Space Frontier. The session shed light on several hands-on opportunities for space enthusiasts.

Edward Wright, of the United States Rocket Academy, thinks we are entering a third age of space. The first age being government driven and the second age provided wealthy individuals opportunity to travel to space. The third age is do-it-yourself transportation, technology, and research. Wright compares what’s happening with space right now to what we experienced with personal computing. When parts to build computers became readily accessible, there was a great increase in computing innovation.

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Linux Commands For Beginners: LS

Anthony James —  March 9, 2013

For some of you, this is a basic command that you use literally all the time, If this is you, then this tutorial isn’t for you. But if you’re new to Linux or just new to the command line “ls” is a command you will get to know very well. At the surface level, ls is a simple command, and if typed in any directory or anywhere on the command line, all it does is list the contents of your current working directory. But if I were to leave it at just that I would have done you no favors at all. In fact, I’m going to tell you some tips and tricks to ls and we might even throw in a grep command if you’re lucky!

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Debugging With an Android Hardware Device

Richard Layton —  March 8, 2013

Hi again Android programmers!  I can call you that now since you have completed our first tutorial right?  In our first tutorial I picked you up off the bare floor, dusted you off a bit, and gave you to tools necessary to embark on our journey.  We installed the Android SDK, setup the virtual machine, and wrote our first Android app.

This time we are going to slow things down just a tad a focus on just one thing.  We are going to break out of the confines and slowness of the emulator and bring that app into reality.  And by that I mean running and debugging your applications on your own phone or tablet!  How else are you going to show off what you have done?  “Hey guys, come and look and what I made on my computer.”  WRONG!  That’s NOT how we do it.  You have to put it in their face!

You don’t have an app to show off?  You didn’t complete the first tutorial did you?  You don’t have an Android device?  Why don’t you take this coloring book and sit in the corner?.  The rest of us can get started.

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Pinehead will be at SXSW Interactive!!

Tyra Robertson —  March 7, 2013

March is turning of to be a super lucky month for me. Last week I was representing Pinehead at the SpaceX launch at the Kennedy Space Center and this week I’m representing Pinehead at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive! SXSW is most known as a music and film festival but last year Interactive hosted about 19,000 people, about a third of attendees at the three SXSW conferences.

So I wanted your input on what you’d like covered. Think of me as your conference robot, I will report form the sessions you are interested in. There are two tracks I’m focused on, Space and Open Source but if there is something you’d like me to attend, just speak up! Below is a list of some of courses in those two areas with links to the course descriptions. Leave a comment if you’d like me to attend a particular session and/or if you have any questions you’d liked me to ask.

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Unplugged – Replace Your Cable Provider with Linux Enabled Media

Terrence T. Cox —  March 6, 2013

The title of this article says it all. Can we replace our traditional media providers (cable, satellite or other) with nothing more than online media, enabled for Linux? I think we can get closer to an answer that we have been able to at any point in the recent past. Depending on your goals (cost reduction, time shift, diversity of programming), I believe we can provide some guidance and information that will enable you to make the decision to unplug.

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Putting a Finger on the Pulse of NASA

Tyra Robertson —  March 4, 2013

I represented Pinehead as a part of a recent NASA Social event which allowed social media users access on the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to cover the SpaceX CRS-2 launch on Friday, March 1. The day before the launch we were shown the Vehicle Assembly Building, launch pads, attended press conferences and science briefings, and had Q&A time with NASA officials.

If you think about space travel in the United States today, the outlook can seem dismal. The most recent major news about NASA has been the Shuttle retirement and the $726 million NASA will lose to sequestration. It’s no wonder people think NASA is closing down. What I discovered during my time KCS is, while budgets and active programs may be reduced, momentum at NASA has not been shaken.

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